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From concert and album reviews to feature articles, Third Coast Percussion is in the news.
We are fortunate to have garnered critical acclaim and recognition for so many of our performances and projects. See for yourself what the buzz is all about by reading what the press has to say! Browse reviews, articles, and much more below.
Concert Review: Third Coast Percussion hits all the right notes
August 25, 2016, by Third Coast Percussion
June 24, 2016 by Robert Croan It was not your grandmother’s chamber music at East Liberty’s Kelly Strayhorn Theater Thursday. Chamber Music Pittsburgh opened its enterprising Just Summer! season with a rousing and riveting concert by Chicago’s Third Coast Percussion — sounds quite unlike anything you’re likely to hear elsewhere in Pittsburgh. The concert featuring virtuoso players Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin and David Skidmore traversed wide-ranging works for percussion groups, from John Cage’s seminal “Third Construction” (1941) up to a recent work by Mr. Skidmore, who was percussionist with Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble from 2007-11. Mr. Connors and Mr. Martin also have performed with PNME. (more…)
Album review: REICH Third Coast Percussion
July 18, 2016, by Third Coast Percussion
June 2016 by Pwyll ap Siôn Steve Reich’s music is often at its most effective when he writes for different combinations of percussion and/or piano, often set out symmetrically on stage in opposing pairs. This form of contemporary chamber music – unique in many ways to Reich – foregrounds some of its most important stylistic elements: rhythmic and melodic counterpoint; the combination and layering of interlocking patterns; and, most importantly, the dynamic interplay and subtle shifts in balance that are required collectively from the ensemble to best achieve these effects. It is this last element that proves a stumbling block for some performances of Reich’s music. Third Coast Percussion get it absolutely right here. Consider, for example, the five-movement Sextet (1984) for percussion and keyboards, which has become something of a 1980s Reich classic. Third Coast take the first movement at a slightly steadier pace than the original…
New, radiant and beautiful
, by Third Coast Percussion
June 2016 by Anthony Burton This enjoyable anthology of recent music by the American composer Augusta Read Thomas comes right up to date with Of Being is a Bird, recorded at its premiere in London last July.... The same sense of purposeful motion runs through the DNA-inspired string quartet Helix Spirals, which progresses gradually from scattered pizzicatos to bowed unanimity, and Selene, for percussion and string quartets, which depicts the moon goddess's journey across the skies with irresistible forward drive, pausing only for moments of radiant beauty. Claire Booth and Aurora capture the poetry and liveliness of the Dickinson settings, the Parker Quartet are impressively assured in Helix Spirals, and Third Coast Percussion and the Spektral Quartet interlock with exhilarating precision in Selene. Performance ★★★★★ Recording ★★★★★
Artist Interviews: Third Coast Percussion
July 22, 2017, by Third Coast Percussion
May 8, 2016 by Eve Szokolai CHIRP volunteer Eve Szokolai walked across the hall from the CHIRP studios and interviewed CHIRP's neighbors Third Coast Percussion about their recent Steve Reich album and the corresponding app. Click here to listen to the full interview.
Thinking outside the drum box
, by Third Coast Percussion
April 24, 2016 Carrie Seidman Say percussion and what most people think of is drums. But that’s a far too limited description of the instruments played by Third Coast Percussion, a quartet returning to Sarasota this weekend as the final performers in the New Music New College concert series. (more…)
Classical CDs Weekly: Elgar, Ives, Reich, Walton
, by Third Coast Percussion
April 9, 2016 by Graham Rickson Steve Reich: Mallet Quartet, Sextet, Nagoya Marimbas, Music for Pieces of Wood Third Coast Percussion (Cedille) This is the greatest percussion disc I have ever heard, both in terms of playing and recording. In the words of Chicago-based Third Coast Percussion, Steve Reich’s music has “shown audiences how percussion can be absolutely essential… it seems to have marimbas and vibraphones in its very DNA.” Reich’s own recordings of his music on Nonesuch should be on everyone’s shelves, but these performances are sharper still. (more…)
Next Gen Steve Reich: Two Great New Recordings
, by Third Coast Percussion
April 3, 2016 by Allan Cronin One of the hurdles on the way to long-term historical recognition is finding the next generation of interpreters for whom the music itself is not new but whose interpretation is needed anew in light of the music’s place in the canon of performed and recorded music. So Mr. Reich has now arrived in two fantastic new recordings. The first CD here is the Cedille (Cedille 90000 161) label debut by Third Coast Percussion, a young Chicago based group. The label itself is reason enough to pay attention with their intelligently selected and well-recorded releases. But even so this one stands out for a couple of reasons. (more…)
Recording of the Week: Third Coast Percussion, Steve Reich
, by Third Coast Percussion
March 31, 2016 by George Grella New recordings of the music of Steve Reich are easy to recommend: he’s arguably the most important composer of the last fifty years, and because he’s a contemporary, every new release adds to our understanding of his work. That is as true for poorly played recordings and of lesser compositions; the bad stuff sets the good stuff into greater relief. There is nothing bad on this recording in terms of either the writing or the playing, it is all very good. The most recent work is the Mallet Quartet, from 2009 (originally released on a Nonesuch disc in 2011 along with WTC 9/11 and Dance Patterns). This is one of Reichs’ finest recent works—propulsive, and mixing his developing ideas about harmony and form with this exceptional ear for integrated patterns and syncopation. Third Coast Percussion’s performance is excellent, it swings and has a beautiful…
Third Coast Percussion, music of Steve Reich
July 17, 2017, by Third Coast Percussion
March 18, 2016 by Joshua Kosman With each passing year, the work of the pioneering minimalist composers — Steve Reich chief among them — moves further from being the private domain of the creators and their performing associates to take a place in the standard repertoire. That means that a recording as splendid and distinctive as this new release by the Chicago quartet Third Coast Percussion is, in its own way, comparable to another ensemble playing Beethoven or Stravinsky. (more…)
New Releases: Third Coast Percussion & Steve Reich
July 22, 2017, by Third Coast Percussion
February 29, 2016 by Jeff Zumfelde Steve Reich turned 80 in October 2016. Third Coast Percussion kicks off the party with this excellent disc that includes a piece from each of the last four decades. Their playing is warm, fluid and very human. The ensemble pulls extra levels of dramatic tension from these pieces with their wonderfully expressive dynamics, especially on Sextet and Mallet Quartet. The tempo for "Nagoya Marimbas" is slightly more relaxed than the original recording from the 1990s and the piece breathes and dances as a result. The contrasts in color that Third Coast achieves here are quite effective and emotionally engaging. Click here to read the original article.
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